Denise Inglis writes
> I am looking for information on the Irish monasteries of Bangor (Co. Down)
> and Iona and their daughter-houses: Annegray, Luxeuil, St. Gall and Bobbio
> for Bangor; Lindisfarne, Wearmouth-Jarrow and Durrow for Iona. I find
> plenty of stuff on Irish monasticism in general, but I'm looking for specific
> info on any or all of these particular monasteries.
The best thing I've read recently is a paper by the late Cardinal
Tomos O Fiaich (R.I.P.) "Irish Monks on the Continent" which appeared
in "An Introduction to Celtic Christianity" edited by James Mackey,
T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1989 There are c40 pages of which over 4 are
given to an excellent bibliography.
On the Irish moasteries you mention I recommend "Iona, Kells and
Derry: the history and hagiography of the monastic familia of
Columba" by Maire Herbert. Clarenden Press, Oxford, 1988 with 20
pages of bibliography.
>
>Also info on St. Comgall> (sp?) the founder of Bangor.
>
If you have access to Butler's Lives of the Saints (Burns & Oates,
1956) there's a page on St.Comgall in volume 2, on May 11th (feast
day) . It refers you also to a Latin Life of St.Comgall (in the Acta
Sanctorum) and an article about his Rule in the periodical Eriu, vol
1, 1904 pp191-208 (by Manchester's own Professor John Strachan!). It
also recommends J.Ryan's "Irish Monasticism" (1931) and Dom Gougaud's
"Christianity in Celtic Lands"(1933 but recently reprinted)
Unfortunately he seems to have been missed out of H.Patrick
Montague's excellent "Saints and Martyrs of Ireland", Colin Smythe,
Gerards Cross, 1981; though this is useful for many of the others.
The recent compilation of the writings of Kathleen Hughes ("Church and
Society in Ireland AD 400-1200" edited by David Dumville, Variorum
Reprints, London, 1987) sems to have quite a number of refernces to
Comgall in the index.
A final hint - books about the great manuscripts the Book of
Lindisfarne and the Book of Durrow, will no doubt have background
information on the monasteries. If you want any more refernces then
mail me direct and I'll see what I can find.
Janet Wallwork
John Rylands University Library of Manchester